Stacking Plan

A stacking plan is a visual map of a commercial building that shows which tenant occupies each floor, the square footage of each space, when each lease expires, and often the rent. Most common in office buildings, it turns rent roll data into a floor-by-floor picture asset managers use to see occupancy and lease rollover at a glance.

How Does a Stacking Plan Work?

A stacking plan works by drawing the building as stacked floors and coloring each block by tenant, so occupancy, vacancy, and lease timing read at a glance. Each block typically carries the tenant name, square footage, and lease expiration date, and often the rent, converting the rent roll into a spatial diagram of how space is used across floors.

The plan is usually color-coded to surface patterns quickly. Vacant suites, near-term expirations, and below-market rents can each get a color, so an asset manager scanning the diagram sees where risk and opportunity sit without reading a spreadsheet row by row. The stacking plan is built from the rent roll, so it inherits the same underlying lease data in a form that is faster to review.

Because it shows expirations spatially, a stacking plan makes lease rollover risk visible. A building where several large tenants expire in the same year carries concentration risk that a sorted rent roll can obscure but a color-coded plan makes obvious.

Why a Stacking Plan Matters

A stacking plan matters because it turns lease data into decisions about retention, leasing, and value. For asset managers and prospective buyers, it offers a fast read on tenant diversity and lease maturity, which are central to judging a property's stability and its exposure to rollover in any single year.

The plan directs leasing strategy. Seeing which suites expire when, and which sit vacant, tells the leasing team where to push renewals, how to sequence marketing of open space, and whether to hold contiguous floors for a larger tenant. A cluster of expirations in one year is a signal to start renewal conversations early rather than face concentrated vacancy at once.

For buyers, a stacking plan is a diligence shortcut. It compresses a full rent roll into a single view of occupancy, expiration timing, and rent levels, which is why offering packages for office and multi-tenant assets often lead with one. It does not replace the lease documents, but it frames which leases deserve the closest read.

Example

An asset manager builds a stacking plan for a five-story office building with 10,000 rentable square feet per floor, or 50,000 total. The plan color-codes each suite by status. The table below is the data behind the diagram.

The diagram makes two facts immediate. Physical occupancy is 40,000 of 50,000 square feet, or 80%, because floor five is empty. And Northpoint Advisory occupies 20,000 square feet, or 40% of the building, on leases that both expire in December 2026, so 40% of the building rolls in a single month. A sorted rent roll contains the same numbers, but the stacking plan exposes the concentration at a glance, telling the asset manager to open renewal talks with Northpoint well ahead of 2026.

Variations and Edge Cases

A stacking plan is not limited to one format or property type: what it shows depends on the asset and the audience. Office buildings drive the clearest use, but the tool adapts to retail, industrial, and mixed-use with different emphasis. The table separates common variants.

The frequent error is treating a stacking plan as a substitute for the leases. It summarizes lease data but omits clauses that change value, such as renewal options, co-tenancy provisions, and expense recovery terms. The plan tells an asset manager where to look; the lease documents tell them what the space is actually worth.

Stacking Plan vs Rent Roll

A stacking plan is often confused with a rent roll, but they present the same information differently. A rent roll is the underlying data table listing every lease with tenant, square footage, rent, and expiration. A stacking plan is the visual diagram built from that table, mapping the same data onto the building floor by floor. The rent roll is the spreadsheet; the stacking plan is the picture.

The rent roll is the source of record and holds more detail, including recovery structures, escalations, and security deposits that a diagram cannot easily show. The stacking plan trades that detail for speed of comprehension: rollover concentration, vacancy, and rent spread that take careful reading in a rent roll are obvious in a color-coded plan. Asset managers use both, the rent roll for accuracy and the stacking plan for pattern recognition.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a stacking plan in commercial real estate?A stacking plan is a visual representation of a commercial building showing which tenant occupies each floor, the square footage of each space, and when each lease expires, often with the rent. It is most common in office buildings and helps asset managers see occupancy and lease rollover at a glance.

What is the difference between a stacking plan and a rent roll?A rent roll is the underlying data table of every lease, and a stacking plan is the visual diagram built from that data. The rent roll holds more detail and is the source of record; the stacking plan trades detail for a faster read of vacancy, rent spread, and expiration concentration.

What information does a stacking plan show?A stacking plan shows tenant names by floor, the square footage of each suite, lease expiration dates, and often the rent per square foot, with vacant space flagged. Color-coding surfaces vacancy, near-term expirations, and below-market rents so risk and opportunity read without a row-by-row spreadsheet review.

Related Terms

• Rent Roll

• Weighted Average Lease Term

• Vacancy Rate

• Tenant Retention Rate

• Loss to Lease